updated 03:20 pm EDT, Tue April 22, 2008

Court Rejects Vista Appeal

A US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a Microsoft appeal that would have barred the ongoing Vista Capable lawsuit from entering class action status. The court's decision lends support to arguments by the plaintiffs that a large group of users have been hurt by allegedly misleading system requirements for the Vista Capable logo, leading many to buy systems that are ultimately unable to run the Windows variant smoothly.

The ruling also clears the way for a continued discovery process in the lawsuit that will permit further investigation of documents and electronic files relating to the suit. In February, published e-mail dialogues between Microsoft employees revealed that Microsoft had knowingly lowered requirements to qualify for the logo to allow Intel more sales of components for Vista-capable systems.

Microsoft has defended itself from such claims by arguing that e-mail uncovered as part of the lawsuit's investigation reveals active dialogue with partners rather than official statements of policy. However, some company employees stated in the messages that they personally had been affected by the company's official stance, leading them to buy systems branded Vista Capable that ultimately couldn't run certain features or would run them below acceptable performance levels.

I'd almost bet

They'll wriggle out of it

I want to M$ go down but, they will get out of this. In the end, the buyer needs to pay attention to what they're buying and understand that "Vista Capable" may only mean capable of running the most basic version of Vista.

go down?

Agreed. Yet this would never sink the MS boat. Wiggle out? I don't think so, it will be a PR and financial hit. In terms of PR, I don't know how a company in the business of building operating systems, could do much worse than with their last iteration of Windows-Vista. So this just continues the dog-pile on Vista.

Insofar as money is concerned, MS has no worries. The XP cash cow never seems to dry up. Only a monumental settlement would stop or slow this juggernaut down. That sort of settlement would need a few extra zeros added to it.

Of the two hits, I'd say the PR one will be the worse. The more former windows users there are, the better it is for everyone else in the OS business, the largest beneficiary being Apple. Present growth rates and OS X adoption seem to prove this out. If Apple grows it's installed user base by 3 percent, MS looses reciprocally. This is market share MS is not getting back. I'd say they're starting to keep a close eye on the goings on at Apple and I mean more than just poorly copying OSX.